Snow, an island and a house at the beach…

Our trip through Great Britain continued with a train ride to Berwick-Upon-Tweed, where we met our good friend Claire, who had found us a lovely little place by the beach. It was so lovely to be tucked up inside, watching the waves (and occasionally running outside to delight in the snowflakes!) It was fabulous to catch up with Claire.

We found the local Indian restaurant – Karen and Claire pre feast

The view from our place

Of course, we couldn’t only stay inside…so we ventured out to explore the countryside. It turns out some of the surrounding castles are closed in winter…so instead we found ourselves a treehouse at Alnwick Castle to have afternoon tea in, a museum made out of a converted church, and some beautiful views of castles. We explored the British delights of Aldi, Tesco and Asda, we played lots of rounds of Cluedo, Pictionary and Scrabble, we drank mulled wine and laughed a lot.

Reubs in the cold

On a swing bridge at the back of the treehouse

A treehouse

We also spent a day on the holy island of Lindisfarne. Lindisfarne is only accessible via a causeway at specific times of day (there seemed to be quite a lot of water there even though we were going in a safe time! Claire did a great job of driving though.) Lindisfarne is famous for its castle (pictured above), which is a mile’s walk from the parking next to the water. The walk is pretty exposed, as we discovered when it started snowing and then hailing on us! Snow still feels quite novel, so we weren’t distressed…just quite chilly!

The snow started to fall…

Then stopped for awhile…

The island has stunning views

Plus a bit of wind!

The snow came back with a vengeance!

Also famous on the island is the ruined Abbey, which we took a quick look around before heading for free mead tasting and a hot coffee – much needed after the snow. We had a great time on our winter day and would definitely come back here in summer to explore more thoroughly.